A Reluctant Rebel

Governor Terrance Murphy was doing his job when he chose to protect the inhabitants of worlds in his outlying province of the Terran Federation. He just was not doing the job the Terran Federation sent him to do – to keep those in a Fringe World province in line, serving the will of the Five Hundred, the elite families ruling the Terran Federation. Terran Federation officials attempted to arrest him. When he resisted, they declared him a rebel and his province “out of compliance.”

Rebel, a science fiction novel by David Weber and Richard Fox, is a sequel to Governor, in which Murphy defied orders and repelled an incursion by the human Free World Alliance into his territory. Worse, he has proof the alien Rishathan Sphere is secretly aiding the Alliance.

To the Five Hundred, Rishathan conspiracy talk is conspiracy theory talk. Proof does not matter. They view Murphy as a nutjob ignoring his roots in the Five Hundred. They attempt to suppress Murphy and his conspiracy theorists to force an abject surrender of the Fringe Worlds defying them.

Murphy has a fleet backing him. He also has the support of the Fringe Worlds. The Terran Federation is in a war with the Free World Alliance, ongoing for nearly a century. The Terran Federation’s fleet is largely staffed by people from the Fringe Worlds. They do most of the fighting and dying. Their worlds are kept undeveloped – to serve as markets for Heart World products made by Five Hundred-owned companies.

The Fringe Worlds are tired of sending their children to die for the Five Hundred, but objections to Heart World policies are brutally repressed. They join Murphy, taking over the Terran Federation ships guarding their systems (staffed largely by Fringe Worlders) and are joining Murphy.

Murphy is trying to dampen down the explosion, but the Five Hundred are unwilling to compromise. They profit from defense spending contracts and never-ending war. To them, the Fringe Worlders are serfs, subservient to the Hear World. Their reaction is to crush any Fringe World defying them.

When the Heart Worlds attack and employ scorched-earth tactics on the planet Odysseus after the Bellerophon System declares for the rebellion, Murphy must make a decision. Does he support them, starting a civil war?

Rebel follows his decision’s consequences. The result is a fast-paced space opera with desperate planetary stands and sprawling space battles. Weber and Fox have created an absorbing adventure tale.

“Rebel,” by David Weber and Richard Fox, Baen Books, 2024, 496 pages, $28.00 (Hardcover), $9.99 (E-book), $33.25 (Audiobook)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.